Light slanted across his eyes, and dragged Akihiko from a sleep that felt more like a knock-out than actually restful. A part of him expected to feel the canvas of a ring under his cheek, but after a moment, it became clear that he was laying on cotton. And drool. Closing his mouth and swallowing past the fuzzy dryness, he took quick stock of his surroundings: he was in his own bed, but cross-ways and with one leg dangling off, still wearing yesterday's clothes.
His head hurt. A lot.
A squint at the clock revealed that he'd slept in later than he had in years, and he took a moment to thank any available deity that it was the weekend, and Aigis hadn't come barging in to wake him up in the loudest way possible.
A few painkillers and a shower had him feeling moderately more human, so Akihiko decided to drag himself into the kitchen for some sort of sustenance, only to come face-to-face with the heavenly sight that was Shinjiro Aragaki, standing in his kitchen, flipping pancakes.
"Sit down. Breakfast's almost done."
Akihiko scrubbed a hand through his hair and sat down at his small kitchen table, trying to piece together what he was witnessing with what he remembered from the previous night. "I thought you left when I went to bed? Not that I'm not grateful for this, I mean."
Shinji shrugged and started moving a small mountain of eggs and bacon onto a plate. "I did leave, for a while. Had to, since you apparently don't believe in keeping actual food in your kitchen. But I'm the one who got you so shitfaced you couldn't stand, so that makes it my job to take care of your hungover ass, I guess."
Despite the gruffness of the language, Shinji's voice was calm and measured, soothing against Akihiko's lingering headache. It was nice. Shinji himself was probably the nicest person he had ever met, even though the man liked to pretend he was some total badass. Not that he wasn't pretty hardcore when he wanted to be, but it was pretty obvious to anyone who spent time with him that the whole tough guy thing was definitely an act.
Shinji set two plates down on the table with a frown. "Would you wipe that dumb sappy look off your face and eat your breakfast already?"
Akihiko grinned. "Thanks for the food."
"Yeah, yeah."
They ate in companionable silence for a while until the door flew open with a crash, and in strode Aigis.
At least she'd waited until his hangover had been mostly dispelled by an excess of carbohydrates and protein.
"Uh, hey Aigis. You do realize it's a weekend right?"
The blonde android shook her head. "That is not why I am here. Mitsuru-san has gone missing."
Akihiko sat bolt upright, and heard Shinji do the same. "What? Since when?"
Another voice spoke up from behind Aigis, who shifted to the side to allow Kikuno into the apartment. "Since last night. She indicated that she was going to go for a late-night ride on her motorcycle, but it never left the premises. There are signs of a fight between Lady Mitsuru and multiple assailants in the garage. We believe she may have been abducted."
"What about her security? Don't you guys have systems to prevent this kind of thing?"
"It was breached with very little problem. We have reason to believe the infiltrators had some sort of inside contact." At this point, Kikuno paused and looked directly at Shinji. "You demanded entrance to the estate last night and took up a large amount of Lady Mitsuru's time, almost immediately after which she went missing. Do you have some sort of explanation for this?"
She suspected Shinji? That was so completely ridiculous that Akihiko couldn't even form words in his defense. Aigis, thankfully, stepped in. "Kikuno-san, I believe I informed you already that it is impossible for Shinjiro-san to be a traitor. He does not, as they say, 'have it in him.' There must be some reason why he would visit Mitsuru-san at such an odd hour."
This time, it finally set in that Shinji had visited Mitsuru last night, as in after Akihiko had spilled his guts and went to bed. He groaned. "You didn't."
"Someone had to do something about the two of you morons. And since you clearly wouldn't do it, I did." Shinji did have the grace to look uncomfortable about it, at least.
Kikuno tapped her fingers against her arm. "Would one of you care to explain?"
"It was a… personal matter. I vouch for Shinji, he definitely didn't have anything to do with this." Surely his word had to count for something, right?
The maid studied his face for a moment, a clear question in her eyes, but her training seemed to reassert itself and she nodded. "Very well. Lady Mitsuru left clear instructions on what should be done if she should be removed from the chain of command for any reason - the Shadow Operatives defer to you, Sanada-san. What is our next move?"
That Mitsuru had some sort of contingency plan in place didn't surprise him at all, but the fact that he was her next choice did, a little bit. Akihiko had never really led anyone beside himself, and had been completely absent for most of the organization's founding. The trust Mitsuru was placing in him was a little staggering, even after all this time.
Shaking it off, he glanced at Aigis. "We're going to need Fuuka for this. Call her in, have her locate Mitsuru's position. When we find out where she is, we go in full force."
The blonde nodded. "Affirmative. Yukari-san will be very upset if she is left out of this mission. I will call her, as well as Junpei-san and Ken-san and Koromaru-san."
Akihiko grinned. "Thanks, Aigis. Kikuno, I'd like to leave Labrys and the non-persona user Operatives back to defend Headquarters under your command. Figure out who these people are and how they managed to breach Mitsuru's security. The rest of us will hit them hard and fast, before they even know we're coming." No cloak and dagger infiltrations this time. That was Mitsuru's style, not his.
A soft snort sounded from the other side of the table, and Akihiko glanced at Shinji. "So your plan is to just kick down the front door and beat the shit out of everyone between us and Mitsuru?"
"Pretty much. You in?"
"Hell yeah, I'm in."
Awareness filtered back to Mitsuru slowly, one sense at a time. Smell was first, then taste, then hearing. Touch followed, and it was only once she was missing sight alone that actual conscious thought was possible, allowing her to piece together the various bits of sensory information she'd been passively collecting. She was in a room, large by the sound of it, the air dusty and stale, tied to a chair and blindfolded. That explained the lack of sight, and the slight throbbing pain in her head and metallic taste in her mouth were likely symptoms of whatever they'd drugged her with to seal her persona.
As she stirred, subtly trying to stretch stiff muscles as well as test her bonds, she heard footsteps approach. The blindfold was pulled away, catching briefly on her hair, and Mitsuru blinked rapidly to adjust her eyes to the light.
Three men stood in her field of view: two of them in suits and standing at parade rest on either side of her peripheral vision; and one front and center, still holding the blindfold. This one was tall, wore glasses and a black leather jacket, and his aristocratic features were pinched in an expression of distaste. Even if she hadn't recognized his face, the man would have been easily identifiable from the large arabic numeral one that was emblazoned on the side of his jacket.
"Kei Nanjo."
He inclined his head slightly. "Mitsuru Kirijo."
His gaze held hers for a moment, and then Mitsuru settled back in her chair, trying to look comfortable and unconcerned, as if she were the one controlling this interrogation. "Is there some particular reason you felt the need to break into my home, assault me, and kidnap me?" Her limbs being tied down somewhat spoiled the effect, but she thought her light, amused tone carried it well enough.
Anger flashed across his features, and Mitsuru was gratified to see that her intuition had been correct - he was a hothead, and could perhaps be goaded into revealing more than he intended.
"Need I remind you that it was you who first broke into my home, assaulted my guards, and stole my belongings? And that's after trying to infiltrate my staff for months. How very unfortunate for you that when you copied the data from my computer, you opened a link that allowed a window into your own system. Turnabout is fair play, Kirijo. And now you will explain yourself."
So that was how he'd gotten his people through her security and onto her grounds. Heaven only knew what had been compromised in a leak of this magnitude, and Mitsuru briefly cursed her own distraction. Had she been in her right mind after the mission, she might have caught the breach herself - or at least been more prepared for its consequences.
Regardless of any of that, however, was the fact that Kei Nanjo had access to at least a portion of Shadow Operative data. In the face of that knowledge, dissembling would be useless.
"Evidence indicates that something paranormal occurred in the cities of Mikage-cho and Sumaru, in 1996 and 1999, respectively. You were present for both of them. I wanted to know why."
Nanjo's eyebrows ticked up in surprise. "Such a candid answer. How unexpected from a woman who runs an organization called the 'Shadow Operatives.'"
Mitsuru shrugged. "There's little point in lying about something you already know. What I'm confused about is why you went to the trouble of bringing me here at all - why show your hand so blatantly? You have to realize that you can't hold me for long." It wasn't a threat, but a statement of fact, and Nanjo ignored it entirely, forging on in his questioning.
"You truly expect me to believe that, before you searched my archives, you had no idea what happened in Mikage-cho in 1996?"
He was looking at her as if he expected her face to betray some secret, but Mitsuru just felt baffled. "Well, considering the fact that I was four years old at the time, yes. All the information from that time has been long-sealed, and I honestly don't know what you're implying."
"Don't play games with me, Kirijo. We both know that your company has long-standing ties to the Saeki Group, and that your grandfather personally funded the research of a man named Takahisa Kandori, the head of the Mikage-cho branch of the Saeki Electronics, Biological, & Energy Corporation."
Nanjo's own data had indicated that SEBEC had some hand in the bizarre events in Mikage-cho, but the Saeki family had been exonerated of any connections to the research that had caused the city to be cut off from the outside world and filled with monsters. Nothing in Kirijo Group records indicated any ties, but Kouetsu Kirijo's pet projects were rarely noted in any official capacity. Mitsuru had been so certain that she'd tracked down all of her grandfather's research, but if Nanjo's open hostility was anything to go by, she'd missed one. A large one.
A sinking feeling hit her stomach. One more sin to add to the mountain that already overshadowed her family's legacy. Had her father known about this, and simply kept it secret? Or was this something that had slipped his gaze as well, like Ikutsuki's betrayal and the existence of Strega?
Mitsuru leaned as far forward as her bonds would allow. "If you know anything about my organization or what it stands for, Nanjo, you should know that if my grandfather was involved in it, I am in direct opposition. I have spent my entire life righting his wrongs. But believe me when I tell you I know nothing about his involvement in this."
Nanjo's expression went contemplative, but before he could respond, a klaxon began blaring throughout the room they were in.
"I did tell you that you couldn't hold me for long, didn't I?"
"Awfully confident in your employees, aren't you, Kirijo?"
"I'm confident in my friends."
A very small smirk twisted Kei Nanjo's mouth. "As am I, Kirijo. You two! Go guard the door, and make sure we aren't interrupted. I'm not done here." The two bodyguards bowed and left the room. As the door slammed shut, something stirred in the back of Mitsuru's mind, and she relaxed muscles she hadn't realized she'd been tensing. Her awareness of Artemisia was still dim, and summoning her without an evoker almost impossible right now, but it wouldn't be long before her magic was within reach.
"Now, I'll ask again - how can you say that you knew nothing about the links between your grandfather and the events you're researching, when only months after the Sumaru City incident, which also involved Takahisa Kandori, suddenly a Kirijo lab explodes and causes a tear in the fabric of space-time?"
He knew about the Dark Hour. How could he-
Mitsuru's own mental alarm bells started echoing the actual ones, as Artemisia's senses finally came back online, flooding Mitsuru's brain with information.
Nanjo was a persona user.
She couldn't pick up any particulars yet, like weaknesses or abilities, but even at her decreased capacity, she couldn't miss the strength of the reading, or the flavor of it. He was a Hierophant, if she wasn't mistaken, which usually meant a lack of elemental weakness. On top of that, his persona had a peculiar resonance that she had only ever detected from Minako's strongest personas - a mixture of light and lightning and almighty magic, which was non-elemental and devastatingly powerful.
Well, that complicated things somewhat.
"I'm sorry, Akihiko-senpai, I can't find her anywhere. Maybe they sealed her persona somehow? Or they could have someone who can hide personas from me, like Chi- like Strega had."
Fuuka's eyes met his from within Juno's protective bubble, her distressed voice echoing in the space between his ears instead of the few feet between them. Akihiko did his best to ignore the way Junpei twitched involuntarily at the almost-mention of Chidori's name, and focused on the task at hand. The Shadow Operatives had had little success in finding out who had broken into the Kirijo estate, so Fuuka had really been their only hope.
Yukari (who was fortunately wearing something less ridiculous than the last time she'd been called in unexpectedly) looked up from examining her bow. "Let me make sure I've got all this straight. The running theory is that the Nanjo Group did this somehow, right? I mean, you guys stole something from them like a week ago, it would make sense. And didn't that data you recovered say that there were other persona users involved? Maybe you should try searching for any personas, Fuuka, instead of just Artemisia."
"Um, I'll do my best!"
Akihiko knew how hard trying to search large areas had been on Mitsuru back in the day, and though Fuuka's persona was much better suited for that kind of work, the strain still showed on her face. Her small hands trembled as she clasped them, but he let her do her thing. Trying to stop her probably would have been pointless, anyway - Fuuka had a bit of steel in her, too, and it came out most often when her abilities (and in her mind, her usefulness) were questioned.
Juno flickered out of existence, and Fuuka gasped and started to crumple, but Junpei managed to catch her before she could hit the floor.
"Shit, Yamagishi. You okay?" Shinji moved from where he'd been leaning against a wall up next to Akihiko, a concerned frown on his face.
Time paused for a half a second, and then she nodded, not lifting her head from where it rested against Junpei's chest. "I found someone. Three persona users, plus a weird reading that might have been Mitsuru-senpai, on the edge of the city. But those three- they're strong. Really strong. I couldn't get an exact reading but… I think they're stronger than us."
Everyone's faces went through various stages of worry, and Akihiko shook his head. "There's three of them, and eight of us - nine, counting Mitsuru, when we find her. We'll just stick together, and if we don't have to fight them, great. But if we do, we'll just have to beat them, and that's that."
The assembled juniors - he'd never been able to kick the habit of calling them that - all exchanged a look, and Yukari raised an eyebrow in his direction. "Wow, senpai. You must be really worried about Mitsuru if you're not jumping at the chance to fight these guys."
Junpei grinned and helped Fuuka stand up, his arm still around her shoulder as she leaned against him. "Yeah, who are you and what did you do with Akihiko-senpai, huh? Usually Mitsuru-senpai has to hold you back anytime there's even the mention of something badass showing up. Without her here, I figured you'd really be gung-ho about beating the snot out of everything in sight."
A quiet voice piped up from the corner, where Ken was crouched next to Koromaru. "Well, we are charging in through the front door. I think that still counts."
If he was being honest with himself, there was a large part of Akihiko that hoped they did run into them. But the majority of his brain was concerned with getting Mitsuru out and protecting his people - he was in charge, and he couldn't just run off because there was a challenge to be conquered.
Later, though? If he got a chance later, when no one else's safety was on the line, he was going to find at least one of these three and kick their ass.
Next to him, Shinji snorted and shook his head. "That's enough commentary from the peanut gallery. Fuuka knows where we're headed and we know what the plan is. Let's do it."
Shooting his old friend a grateful grin, Akihiko punched his left hand into his right, already feeling the adrenaline start to rush through his veins, combating the sick feeling that had been sitting like a rock in his stomach the minute he heard Mitsuru was taken. It was time for what he did best: action. "Shinji's right. Let's move out."
The team all loaded up into a personnel carrier that was a good deal more practical than Mitsuru's stretch limo, but still just as useless for stealth missions, so it hadn't been used much. Fuuka directed the driver, and everyone else settled in the back, checking over their equipment. Akihiko had a spare evoker in an extra holster, just in case, and Fuuka was carrying Mitsuru's favorite rapier. Junpei had swapped out the two-handed sword he used to favor for a baseball bat, like he'd carried the last time they needed to fight other persona-users.
Their destination was a nondescript warehouse, on the small side but with several levels below the main building. The ground floor was abandoned, and it was easy enough to find a freight elevator that led below. Too easy, probably, and the mix of tension and anticipation ratcheted Akihiko's breathing up another notch.
"Ugh. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate being underground? Because I really hate being underground." Yukari shuddered and held her bow more tightly to her chest as she stepped onto the lift, her face screwed up in disgust.
"Do not worry, Yukari-san. We will find Mitsuru-san quickly and then we can leave. Also, Koromaru-san wishes you to know that he is here, too." The shiba nuzzled against Yukari's leg, and she visibly relaxed a little.
"Thanks, Aigis. You too, Koro-chan."
A quick survey to make sure that everyone was on the elevator revealed a lot about the bonds between the various ex-members of SEES. Koromaru cuddling with Yukari, who was standing close to Aigis. Junpei, who had one arm thrown around Fuuka and the other ruffling Koro's fur. Shinji at Akihiko's right, covering his non-dominant side, with a bracing hand on Ken's shoulder. Everyone tense but comfortable with each other and with what they had to do, despite the fact that they were essentially a body operating without a brain to direct them or a heart to lead them.
This was his family, weird and cobbled together and with pieces missing, but still good.
Akihiko grinned, and pushed the button to descend into the complex.
As soon as he did so, an alarm sounded from the level below, and the entire group took a collective breath. The lift had no sooner shuddered to a halt when three suited men wielding stun batons rounded the corner, bearing down on their position. No guns, thankfully, judging by the way the men recoiled at seeing evoker holsters on a bunch of barely-adults.
"Non-lethal damage only, okay? Aigis and Yukari, hold back and protect Fuuka."
With that order, Akihiko lunged forward into the corridor, Shinji and Junpei close behind. The lead man dodged his initial punch, feinting right and lashing out with his stun baton. Force slammed against Akihiko's ribs, but instead of going down as expected, Akihiko rolled his shoulders and channeled the electricity through his arm and into his fist, sending it directly into the man's stomach with a center-mass strike that left him in a twitching heap on the ground.
Stretching cautiously - the baton had hit the side of his ribs that had been broken, and they had healed a little weaker than they'd been before - Akihiko saw that one of the men was hunkered down with Shinji's axe at his throat and his ankle bleeding from a bite wound, while the other was out cold on the ground and Junpei was wiping blood off the side of his baseball bat.
"Mon dieu, what an awful mess!"
The amused feminine voice and perfectly-accented French made Akihiko jerk his head up, Mitsuru's name on his lips. A petite woman with short red-streaked black hair and a rapier held in a loose-but-comfortable grip met his eyes and smiled at him as she raised her blade into a guard position. "Sorry, I don't think I'm quite who you're looking for, but I'll have to do for now."
A sharp gasp echoed in between his thoughts, Fuuka's voice inserting itself into his head. "She's one of the persona-users I detected earlier! I'll try to analyze her, but in the mean time, be careful!"
An arrow whistled past Akihiko's ear and thudded into the tan-clad arm of a larger than life female figure as it shimmered into existence. Pipes curved around her head instead of hair, with more branching from her back to arc over her shoulders and shield her hips, like a bizarre form of wings. She held a lily in her right hand, and lifted the left in a single elegant gesture.
Fuuka's voice turned slightly panicked. "Akihiko-senpai, get back! She's about to-"
The temperature in the hallway plummeted, and Akihiko felt all of his muscles start to contract and tense in on themselves as a thin rime of frost began to coat everything that was exposed to air. Of course they'd have to run up against someone with ice magic. It was hard to breathe, the cold pressing on his chest and the air from his lungs, and as much as he tried, he couldn't get his limbs to obey him.
"Move your ass, Aki!" A large hand grabbed his shoulder and roughly shoved him backwards, into Junpei, who was still gloriously warm. Shinji stood like a windbreak against the blast of ice, pulling his evoker from its holster with clumsy, cold-numbed fingers, managing to press the barrel against his temple and pull the trigger.
Instead of Castor, a tall, marble-skinned form materialized, with long blond hair streaming from a Roman-style helmet, and wearing black armor that reminded Akihiko of Caesar's, under a bright red cloak. The figure had a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, which he raised in conjunction with Shinji's shout: "Makarakarn!"
The cold immediately lessened as the ice rebounded off a translucent force field, back into its caster. It didn't seem to harm her anymore than a reflected Bufudyne would hurt Mitsuru, but it bought everyone a moment to breathe.
Akihiko coughed and cleared his throat, flexing hands that had gone stiff with cold. "Fuuka! I need a weakness on that thing, now!"
"I'm working on it - she's Judgement Arcana, I've never even seen that before, outside from Minako-chan!"
Great.
From all around him, elemental attacks launched towards the woman as Akihiko slumped against the wall and caught his breath. Nothing seemed to faze her, barely even scratching the surface of her persona's defenses. Shinji's persona flashed in and out of existence as he cast and recast defensive spells that Castor hadn't had access to, but Akihiko could tell from his posture that he was getting tired, and fast.
"I've got it! Use darkness, Koro-chan!"
A howl echoed off the sides of the corridor, and a glyph drew itself on the ground underneath the woman, flaring purple-black. The strange pipe-winged persona disappeared, and the woman herself slumped to the ground, apparently unconscious.
Junpei let out a long, shuddering breath to Akihiko's right, shaking his head. "Dude. Shinjiro-senpai, you totally saved our asses. We would've been popsicles. We would have been executed."
Akihiko shivered at the memory of being totally encased in ice and left to thaw out on their own in the Kyoto hot springs. He'd needed to soak forhours before he'd felt warm again. "I thought we agreed to never talk about that, Junpei."
A small hand pressed against Akihiko's shoulder, and healing magic wove its way through his body. Yukari gave him a reassuring pat even as she rolled her eyes at Junpei. "It's not like you two didn't deserve everything you got, you know. Pervs."
"I don't even wanna know what the hell you two did." Shinji stood with Ken at the edge of the group, receiving his own dose of healing, and a quick study of his friend revealed that he'd pushed himself way too hard too quickly. Shinji'd never been great with magic, and he didn't look like he'd been training much since recovering from his coma, if the group's general surprise at his new persona was anything to go by.
Akihiko cleared his throat, and all eyes swung his way. "Now that we're as recovered as we're going to be, let's keep moving. Aigis, Junpei, Koro, you guys take point. Yukari and Ken stay with Fuuka in the middle, and Shinji and I will cover the rear."
A half strangled snort sounded from next to Akihiko's head, and Yukari reached across him to smack Junpei upside the head.
Aigis glanced down at the unconscious woman and tilted her head. "What should we do about her? It would be very unfortunate if she were to pursue us."
"Leave her. We don't have anything to tie her up with, and we can't really afford to waste the time." Akihiko stood, stretching again to try to rewarm his stiffened muscles. All the cold weather training in the world couldn't help him against ice magic, it was clear, and the fact that he had such an easily exploitable weakness irritated him to no end.
The group moved down the hallway in a loose formation, and Shinji hung back until Akihiko caught up with him.
"So, that's an interesting persona you have there. Looks kinda familiar."
Shinji rolled his eyes. "You're welcome for saving your dumb ass from the big scary snow storm, by the way."
Akihiko bumped his shoulder against Shinji's and grinned at him. "Thanks. I do appreciate it. Now, what the deal with Mr. Color-Flipped Caesar? When'd that happen?"
"Aeneas."
"That's his name? Huh. Never heard of him." Mythology and tarot and all that Jungian psychology stuff had never been a major interest of his. He'd have to ask Mitsuru, she was the one who had told him the story behind Castor and Polydeuces, though he was reasonably sure she'd had to look it up. Minako had always just… known, like she carried around an encyclopedia of knowledge about weird old myths in her head.
"As for when it happened, I don't know. Sometime after graduation day, I guess. I just summoned one time to see if I could, and instead of Castor, he showed up." Shinji shrugged and rested his axe on his shoulder.
He didn't seem unhappy about the change, and Akihiko could imagine why. Castor had always had a wild air, like he was one step from going out of control, even after Shinji had started taking those damned pills. Aeneas seemed steadier, calmer, more balanced. Less like he was focused on offense to the detriment of all else. Akihiko didn't know exactly what that meant for Shinji himself - their personas were reflections of themselves, after all - but it was probably a good sign.
"Psychoanalyze me on your own time, Aki, when I don't have to look at your face while you do it." He was glaring straight ahead, and Yukari glanced back at them as if she could feel it boring a hole through her spine, but Fuuka caught her elbow and pulled her in to say something, leaving Akihiko and Shinji relatively alone again.
"Alright, alright. Sorry."
A shout from up front caught their attention, but a few dull thuds and a scuffle followed, and they were on their way past the two normal guards. A split in the hallway was up ahead, and Akihiko called a halt at the fork.
"Fuuka, try and see if you can locate Mitsuru again."
Juno appeared before he'd finished his sentence, and Fuuka smiled from inside her bubble. "Already on it, senpai."
Silence held for a moment, and then: "Found her! Left hallway, but she's with another one of those persona users."
Ken scuffed the toe of a sneaker against the ground and looked around nervously. "Didn't you say there were three? Where's the last one?"
"Below us, somewhere, I think." Juno dissipated with a small flash of light. "They're not headed our way, though, so hopefully we can avoid them."
The left hallway was unoccupied, until a pair of large doors at the very end, which were flanked by two guards, dressed the same as all the others. Junpei and Aigis peeled off to take care of them, and everyone else shoved past through the doors and into a large, open room.
Mitsuru was facing away from them, bound to a chair in the center of the room, but before Akihiko could get a good look at if she was injured or not, the man standing in front of her raised his hand.
A persona flashed into existence in front of them, looking for all the world like some sort of sci-fi butler on a surfboard, and a small corner of Akihiko's brain was boggling at that even as his body was tucking and rolling away from the bolts of lightning that came arcing towards the group. Two female screams of pain echoed behind him and almost gave him pause, but Akihiko pushed through, dodging past the persona and slamming his fist into the jaw of the tall, leather-clad man who'd summoned him. He went down, hard, and didn't get back up.
Akihiko spared a moment for a quick thanks to the universe. It owed him one after all that ice, and strike-weak enemies were his favorite, after all. Turning to Mitsuru, he knelt to start undoing her restraints, trusting her to warn him if the guy started moving again. "Are you alright?"
He glanced up to catch her smiling down at him, and his chest tightened unexpectedly. Akihiko chalked it up to being relieved that she had no visible injuries.
"I'm fine, though you could have shown up a little quicker."
"Sorry. Met up with some lady who could give you a run for your money in the badass ice magic department, got slowed down a little." With that, he finished with the last binding and held out his hand, pulling Mitsuru to her feet.
In one smooth motion, she stepped around his body and kneed the rising man directly in the nose, dropping him again. "Sorry, Nanjo."
She flicked her hair over her shoulder with a smirk and turned back towards the door, and Akihiko had to tamp down hard on the wave of emotion that surged through him. The awe and fondness he was familiar with, and the relief was totally expected, but he had absolutely no idea what to do with the sudden knowledge that he found one of his best friends knocking a guy out sexually attractive.
A woman's voice, yelling "Kei!" drew Akihiko's attention just in time to watch the silver and tan figure of the ice user's persona materialize, facing the unconscious man behind them - Kei Nanjo? - with Mitsuru and himself in the way.
Mitsuru whirled, pulled his evoker from his shoulder harness, and pressed the barrel to her temple as she put herself in the direct line of fire, between either Akihiko or Nanjo. Artemisia held out her hands to deflect the massive spike of ice that hurtled towards them, but she could do nothing about the gout of flame that followed on its heels.
Fire consumed Artemisia and her image shattered with a sound of breaking glass, piercing through her defenses to Mitsuru herself. Akihiko watched as her pupils dilated with pain as her left leg and hip ignited, spreading up her lower back. For a minute, all he could smell was burning flesh, and all he could hear was screaming, even though Mitsuru was biting her bottom lip so hard it was bleeding. Caesar manifested without a single conscious thought, launching Ziodyne after Ziodyne down range even as Akihiko channeled a Diarahan spell through his own hands, cool liquid light quenching the flames and soothing bubbling, blistered skin back to ivory silk.
Caesar struggled against Akihiko's attempts to banish him, feeding off his panic and the near-flashback to the orphanage fire, but finally he disappeared, leaving Akihiko clinging to Mitsuru, not sure which of them was holding the other up.
"Mitsuru? You okay?"
She nodded and raised a hand to his cheek, cool fingertips grounding him and pulling him out of his memories. Mitsuru was fine. He'd been there, he'd been fast enough and strong enough, and she was fine. No one would need to call him in to identify a body so blackened by fire that it was unrecognizable as human.
He let his forehead drop to hers and closed his eyes, absolute exhaustion from the battery of emotions and the too-rapid spellcasting setting in. Akihiko felt more than heard Mitsuru's small sigh. "Akihiko..."
Before he could muster up the energy for an answer, Fuuka's voice jolted them both out of the small moment of peace and away from each other. "Are you two alright? We've subdued the two persona users over here for now, but we're all pretty wiped out."
Mitsuru tipped her head and eyed the seated form of Kei Nanjo, who was conscious again but not making any moves towards them. "We're in a similar state, Yamagishi. Hold them for just a moment." She turned her attention fully outward, stepping towards Nanjo and crossing her arms. "I believe I'll be leaving now, but if you'd like to continue our conversation in a more civil environment, you're welcome to come by Shadow Operative HQ and we can have an amicable exchange of information."
"You started this, Kirijo."
"Yes, well, and then you kidnapped me. I think that makes us even." Mitsuru turned on her heel and walked back towards Akihiko, favoring her leg enough that he held out his arm to her and she took it. They made it back to the larger group without incident, leaving Kei Nanjo's reinforcements to lick their wounds and recover on their own.
Once out of the large room, Yukari peeled off from the group and launched herself at Mitsuru, pulling her into a hug. "Geez, you had us so worried! Are you alright?"
An arm dropped around his shoulders from the side that wasn't occupied by Mitsuru, and Junpei grinned at him from about an inch away from his face. "But seriously, Akihiko-senpai, how'd you know that guy was weak to electricity?"
Akihiko rubbed the back of his neck in discomfort. He hadn't attacked, had been focused on healing, in fact - the lightning had been Caesar's doing, alone. It was an uncomfortable feeling, the closest he'd ever come to actually losing control of his persona. "I didn't know, actually."
"Well, it was lucky, then. Without you, I don't know that we could have brought his defenses down. That crazy Egyptian-looking persona he had was a beast."
Junpei's voice chattered on, and Shinji caught Akihiko's eye. He knew everything - the panic, the loss of control, the flashback. How could he not? Shinji was the one who'd had to listen to Akihiko's nightmares every night after the fire. He knew exactly how bad it would freak Akihiko out to see a girl he cared for literally catch on fire right in front of him. There was no condemnation there, just compassion. Then Shinji raised his eyebrows and tipped his head towards Mitsuru, mouthing the words talk to her. Akihiko nodded, and when he glanced down at the woman in question, still with her hand wrapped loosely around his elbow, she was looking at him. His ears started to burn under her scrutiny, but he forced himself not to look away in embarrassment.
Talk to Mitsuru. Right. Still not the easiest thing in the world, but after what he'd been through today, maybe he could manage it.